When the designers behind the five ready-to-wear labels participating in the latest CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund project find themselves thinking about color, texture, and transparency in the weeks ahead, they won’t be conceptualizing paper-thin pink voile or nubby charcoal-gray wool. They’ll be thinking about makeup. This is the first time the CVFF has collaborated with MAC Cosmetics, the beauty behemoth known for its sought-after, pro-level products and capsule collections (created in collaboration with everyone from Lady Gaga to Giambattista Valli). Beginning today, five womenswear designers (and former CVFF finalists)—Tome, Tanya Taylor, Cushnie et Ochs, Juan Carlos Obando, and Chromat—will develop a proposal for a six-piece makeup collection that captures the essence of their vision. Early next year, after a panel of judges weighs in, the winning concept will go into production (with a bonus $50,000 prize), and the collection will hit stores in 2017.

Last week at the MAC Pro showroom in New York City’s Flatiron District, the designers showed up for a beauty school crash course. As part of the collaboration, senior MAC executives—including longtime creative director James Gager; Jennifer Balbier in product development; and Gordon Espinet, who oversees artist training—will serve as close mentors. Each team will be paired with a MAC makeup artist to experiment with the many formulas, finishes, and shade ranges they’ll have to choose from. They’ll also get a lesson in packaging design and marketing—“all the components that make a successful beauty line,” says CFDA president and CEO Steven Kolb, referring to the multi-pronged learning process.

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Photographed by Corey Tenold

Prabal Gurung, a former CVFF finalist and one of the judges, is already intimately acquainted with what it takes to expand one’s purview from body to face: His gold-clad collection with MAC debuted last year to feverish enthusiasm on social media. He advises the current crop of designers to think expansively. “It’s an opportunity to tell your story through a different medium,” explains Gurung, who often weaves memories of his native Nepal and his elegant mother into his work. And unlike ready-to-wear, which is targeted to the luxury market, a collaboration with MAC has a much farther reach. “It’s such a gratifying feeling,” Gurung says of the way a makeup collection allows a designer to reach a new group of people. “What you put on your face is truly an exclamation mark to your whole outfit.” In honor of the MAC Cosmetics x CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Design Collaboration kick-off, here’s an introduction to its five contenders—and a cheat sheet to each designer’s own personal beauty inspirations.

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Photo: Alex Gur

Tome

Ramon Martin and Ryan Lobo, longtime friends since their fashion-school days in Australia, launched their label in 2010. Known for taking inspiration from a different female artist each season, they have fast become an under-the-radar source for elegant riffs on menswear and deconstructed staples.

Earliest makeup memory:
Lobo: Putting on my mother’s makeup at her dressing table—and being encouraged to [laughs]. I was obsessed with watching her get ready. I remember the smell of her lipstick, of her powders.
Martin: It’s a similar thing for me—watching my parents getting ready for a party. It’s funny, my mother maintains that I didn’t inherit my ability to draw or design from her. But then I think back to that steady, steady hand applying the makeup, customizing her beauty, creating herself for the day or the evening. That’s artistry.

Beauty icons:
Lobo: Sade, full stop. Madonna. Grace Jones. They are emblems of striking, unique, natural beauty that used makeup and fashion to accentuate that.
Martin: It’s always been film—all these moments where [female characters] are creating themselves. I’m thinking of Mommie Dearest or Blade Runner, where Daryl Hannah sprays her eyes with that amazing airbrush. And Butterfield 8: Writing “No Sale” on the mirror in her lipstick is one of the greatest makeup moments in history.

Early collection ideas:
Martin: [The MAC team was] just talking about matte lipstick being the best-seller at the moment, so immediately my mind becomes interested in translucent qualities and pearl.
Lobo: Or, like, Jerry Hall in the high-shine red lipstick. If everyone wants matte, let’s do the opposite!

Tanya Taylor

Since founding her namesake line three years ago, the Toronto native has drawn an influential group of fans, including Lena Dunham and Michelle Obama, thanks to her keen eye for painterly prints and saturated colors.

Earliest makeup memory:
Definitely my mom and grandmother. They always had a really bright lip. But when I watched Working Girl, with Melanie Griffith and Joan Cusack as a duo of friends, and saw how they played with makeup, that became my most vivid memory.

Beauty icons:
Bette Davis is someone we always have on a mood board in terms of eyes. Jean Shrimpton, in terms of details—my woman definitely likes focusing on one detail, like a healthy, clean, fresh face and then a pop-colored lip.

Early collection ideas:
I am a lipstick freak! I have probably seven lipsticks in my bag at all times, and I like to mix them. MAC’s cream lip stain is also interesting to me, and the packaging is incredible.

Cushnie et Ochs

A sense of fearless femininity—from body-contouring dresses to fresh iterations of the power suit—drives the fast-growing fashion label started by Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs in 2008.

Earliest makeup memory:
Cushnie: My mother is never seen without lipstick on! Even if she’s at the beach, she’s in lipstick.
Ochs: It was lipstick as well [with] my mother. That was the one thing she would let me get into and experiment with.

Beauty icons:
Cushnie: In terms of her overall aesthetic as well as makeup, we’ve always looked to Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface. Just how sultry she is.
Ochs: Unapologetic. Owning the room.

Early collection ideas:
Cushnie: [Our woman is] very much an on-the-go global person—traveling, working. We really want to encompass what she needs, whether it’s for day or night, in this capsule collection.
Ochs: We love a good eyebrow, good cheekbone—and bold colors for lipsticks.

Juan Carlos Obando

For his eponymous label, established in 2007, the Colombian designer draws on his warm-weather roots, creating sensuous, color-drenched clothes that are equally at home in the tropics and on the red carpet.Earliest makeup memory:
I was born in Barranquilla, which is on the coast of Colombia. We have this immense carnival, and it was always this explosion of color. Very early on I [learned]: You need to dance, you need the music, you need the makeup! It’s that element that allows the character to come through.

Beauty icons:
Bianca Jagger. I just love her because the whole concept of her life is beauty—not just in the sense of beauty, but living life to its fullest.

Early collection ideas:
We’re always thinking about how to do that exotic, sultry, balmy, sun-kissed look all year long, so definitely bronzers! Nothing beats bronzed, gorgeous skin. It doesn’t really matter what your skin tone is. That look of the summer—it’s alive. It automatically puts you in an upbeat mood.

Chromat

Becca McCharen, who launched her fiercely architectural line in 2010, takes as many risks in form as she does in function, employing such materials as 3-D–printed panels and wearable technology.

Earliest makeup memory:
I was kind of a tomboy, but my mom did have watercolor eyeshadow. It was from the ’70s. I was taking lots of art classes, so I think I saw it as an extension of those classes. Like, Oh, I can paint and draw on my face!

Beauty icons:
My hero is Björk. I love how she is fearless and, from one album to the next, goes in completely different directions—always challenging what can be new. My makeup hero right now is any girl flexing on Instagram that’s not afraid to do a different color eyebrow every day of the week.

Early collection ideas:
I’m really getting into colors. I’m getting into shine and sparkle, kind of like a hot rod, like a car. The person who would be into our makeup collection is someone who’s interested in trying new things and sees makeup as an artistic palette.